


Impropriety

by blahblahwhy



Category: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries
Genre: Drinking, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 15:34:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9663773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blahblahwhy/pseuds/blahblahwhy
Summary: Jack meant to inquire about the furniture: its provenance, it's comfort, how the manufacturers in China could possibly create so deep yet vibrant blue. He certainly did not intend to ask about Miss Phryne Fisher.He was completely astonished, therefore, to hear himself ask: “Have you entertained Miss Fisher recently?”





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Nary](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nary/gifts).



“A drink, Inspector?” Lin Chung asked, already pouring two generous glasses of some imported Chinese wine from a delicate crystal decanter.

Jack Robinson, Detective Inspector of the Melbourne Police Department, pondered for a moment. He much prefered his wits about him during an investigation, but he was all but finished with his line of questioning. It was amply clear that Mr. Lin either knew nothing about the counterfeit currency arriving by barge from Asia nearly daily, or he was disinclined to aid the police with their inquiries. Therefore, Jack reasoned, a little drink might actually aid matters. Perhaps, upon imbibing, Mr. Lin would find his tongue loosened.

Mr. Lin handed over a glass of quite pale liquid.

“Cheers,” he said, meeting Jack’s eye with a hint of a smile.

“Cheers,” Jack replied in kind, and took a deep drink, nearly choking on what was not, in fact, wine.

If Mr. Lin noticed his suppressed sputter, he gave little indication. The angle of his lips may have changed nearly imperceptibly, Jack mused while loosening his tie and breathing deeply, but other than that nothing. A man like that would do well at cards, he thought, watching him settle back in his armchair.

The two men were seated in Lin Chung’s parlor which was richly adorned with silk tapestries and well stocked with comfortable cushions. Jack, dressed in his usual dark brown suit, felt well-displaced here, among the glamorous frippery.

He could not help but ponder how well Miss Fisher would fit, though. She was practically defined by glamorous frippery, certainly, but within she had a spine of strongest steel.

Steady on, Jack, he thought to himself. He wasn't here to discuss Phryne, even if her even if her imagined presence had been obvious and distracting from the moment he entered the room. He could so easily see her lying on one of Mr. Lin’s couches, sheathed in a silk robe, legs languidly slung over the edge of an arm chair.

Jack gulped the rest of the drink to study himself. This was a mistake.

Jack had largely become a teetotaler, almost totally by accident, and his tolerance was suffering for it. Truth was he didn't fully trust himself to refrain from flights of fancy, especially where Miss Phryne Fisher was concerned, when under the influence of alcohol. 

Which he was now. Inebriated, and soon to be drunk as a blasted skunk. Drunk skunk. Flights of fancy with Phryne Fisher.

“May I inquire as to what has made you smile so, Inspector?” Mr. Lin asked, startling jack out of his imaginative linguistic reverie.

Jack focused his eyes, having to work only slightly harder than usual, on Mr. Lin. The man was dressed in a silk robe, blue and covered in iridescent embroidery, similar, in fact, to the robe a beguiling Miss Fisher had been wearing in his imagination. Mr. Lin’s dark hair had been slicked back from his forehead with pomade, and his smile, jackie noticed, was looser, more easy.

Jack meant to inquire about the furniture: its provenance, it's comfort, how the manufacturers in China could possibly create so deep yet vibrant blue. He certainly did not intend to ask about Miss Phryne Fisher.

He was completely astonished, therefore, to hear himself ask: “Have you entertained Miss Fisher recently?”

Again Mr. Lin smiled a charming smile.

“Indeed I have, Inspector,” he said. “Very recently.”

“Please, call me Jack,” Jack said. There was something about this handsome man that made Jack wish to put him at ease.

“Then I must insist you drop the formality as well,” Mr. Lin said. “Simply Lin will do. And if Miss Fisher herself were here, I am certain she would ask to be known just as familiarly.”

Jack inclined his head. She would at that, he knew.

Jack’s mouth was dry. He swallowed, and opened his mouth to say something typical. Perhaps to inquire about the fortunes of Lin’s business, or the health of his family members.

“What is it like?” Jack found himself asking instead, again surprised at the actions of his vocal chords under the influence, but there was no turning back now. He swallowed again, and pressed on. “What is it like to kiss her? Miss Fisher? Phryne?”

Lin blinked slowly, considering. “It is…” he began, but trailed off. “Words fail.”

He looked at Jack, sharply. “May I demonstrate?” he asked.

Jack nodded, expecting Lin to reenact an evening with Phryne in pantomime. Instead, Lin rose and crossed to where Jack sat. He leaned in, close enough that Jack could feel the warmth radiating from his skin.

Jack pulled back momentarily, pleased slightly that he had maintained the ability to do so.

“Your wife,” he said, and Lin shook his head, smiling.

“Camellia and I have an understanding,” he said. “We are partners first, lovers second, and lovers of life third. She is a wonderful and wise woman who understands my… dalliances, as I understand hers.”

Jack gazed at Lin in wonder, searching his face for any indication of untruth. There was none. This thoroughly modern model of a marriage certainly explained why Phryne continued to visit with Lin after his marriage.

Jack didn't always understand modern lifestyles, but that didn't mean he disapproved. In fact, he found himself enjoying this evening, and the man sitting so close to him, very much.

“Now that we have that settled,” Lin said, “may I?”

“Yes,” Jack said, and closed is eyes.

He could almost imagine the lips belonged to Miss Fisher, they were certainly soft enough, and after all, wasn't that what they were doing? Playacting a kiss between a man and a woman? Jack found, however, that the raven-haired beauties were not interchangeable.

For one thing, his scent was all wrong. Phryne smelled of roses and eucalyptus oil. Lin smelled of incense and liquor, but Jack found himself breathing deeply nonetheless, inhaling every bit of him.

Lin’s first kiss was light and soft, nearly chaste, but Jack felt something he hadn't felt since his schooldays, decades prior. Then, as now, he had kissed boys as they pretended to be girls. For practice, they assured each other.

The feelings came back to Jack in a beautiful, youthful rush. It had never quite just been practice for him.

Lin’s second kiss was deeper, more probing, and a hell of a lot more urgent. Jack inhaled deeply through his nose, and kissed him back, just as vehemently, cupping his cheek in one hand and running his thumb against his jawline.

Just then, Jack heard a small but familiar gasp from beyond the open threshold of the room.

Jack leapt up like a shot, and Lin scrambled to his feet as well.

Jack felt his cheeks go hot, and every nerve in his body tingled as though he had just been shocked with electricity.

“Miss Fisher!” Jack greeted her, his voice cracking like a child’s on the brink of adulthood.

“Gentlemen,” she said, stepping into the room and out of her heels. She gazed first one, then the other, as she slowly undid the buttons of her fur-lined coat.

“I want you to listen to me very carefully,” she said, fingers deftly unfastening the second and third button of her coat. “If you dare to cease your activities on my account, or for the sake of any imagined propriety, yes, Jack, I'm looking at you, I will not hesitate to shoot you both.”

Jack stared at her hands as they made quick work of the final buttons near her waist. She was very likely bluffing -- though she could be reckless, she did not often rely on violence. Though, he thought as she shrugged out of her coat and stood before them in a dress that would scandalize half of Melbourne society, one never could tell with Miss Fisher.

“Phryne, how rude of me,” Lin said seizing the moment. “Would you care to join us?”

“I would, very much,” she said, unzipping her dress and stepping daintily out of it. “That is, Jack, if you'll have me.”

“Yes,” Jack breathed, taking in the sight of her.

“Then please,” she said, unhooking her dangling earrings, which left her completely nude. “Carry on. I'd quite like to watch for a moment.”

Jack leaned in to kiss Lin once more, as Phryne perched herself on the edge of the couch, perfectly positioned to take in the proceedings and join in when she pleased.

Oh yes, thought Jack, as he felt Lin begin to unbutton his shirt. Modernity did have its perks indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> The drink Lin serves is _baijiu_ , sometimes called "sorghum wine," which is very much a hard liquor.


End file.
